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What can not be seen clearly with naked eyes, can be easily seen with thermal imaging systems. Thermal Imaging Systems are very useful for seafarers. One such system by Flir is having wide range of marine applications. Also Earthrace presently circumnavigating the globe is fitted with Flir system. The interesting marine applications are:

• Safe navigation
• Port security
• Man Over Board
• Threat detection like anti-piracy
• Marine surveyors:
  • for hull inspection
  • to identify moisture accumulation in FRP/core laminate
  • to identify loose and corroded electrical connections and overheating of electrical cables
  • to measure skin temperatures of boilers,storage tanks

Here is a sample photograph which shows vision through naked eyes and through Flir Thermal Imaging System.

Here is a pdf document that explains Applications of Infrared Imaging Techniques to Marine Surveying.

Here is a video clip which explains marine applications of Flir Thermal Imaging System.

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Before proceeding to know about prediction of Hurricanes, let me tell you……….

What are Hurricanes ?

A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone–an organized rotating weather system that develops in the tropics. Hurricanes rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. In the western North Pacific, hurricanes are called typhoons, and similar storms in the Indian Ocean are called cyclones.

Tropical cyclones are classified as:

• Tropical Depression: An organized system of persistent clouds and thunderstorms with a closed low-level circulation and maximum sustained winds of 38 mph (33 knots) or less.
• Tropical Storm: An organized system of strong thunderstorms with a well defined circulation and maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph (34-63 knots).
• Hurricane: An intense tropical weather system with a well defined circulation and sustained winds of 74 mph (64 knots) or higher.

What are the impacts of Hurricanes ?

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Marine Current Turbines Ltd (MCT) has come up with a tidal energy turbine to generate carbon free electricity. The turbines are driven by tides or by oceanic circulations.

Now, MCT has successfully installed the world’s first commercial scale tidal energy turbine in Northern Ireland. The tidal energy turbine which looks like a submerged windmill, marks the completion of the first installation phase of 1.2 MW SeaGen Tidal System. SeaGen is located approximately 400 metres from the shoreline, 1 km south of the ferry route between Strangford and Portaferry. The SeaGen tidal system is expected to be operational later in the summer and has the following interesting features:

• has 16 metre diameter blades
• has twin rotors
• will be turned by the water streaming in and out of Strangford Lough at up to 8 knots
• weighs 1000 tonne
• will operate for up to 18-20 hours per day
• can power up 1000 homes

Here are some sketches of SeaGen Tidal System.

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Marine Bioinvasions by ballast water used in cargo ships are of great concern to marine environmentalists. Now University of Michigan has taken up a challenge of designing a ballast free ship. If this design comes through successfully, cargo ships would become partial submarines.

Ballast free ship design concept by University of Michigan utilizes constant flow of local seawater through a network of large pipes, called trunks, that runs around the ship from the bow to the stern, below the waterline.

Here are the sketches of conventional ship design and ballast free ship design.

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Pipelines are the lifeline of ships. As most of the pipelines are made of ferrous material, pipe surfaces are required to be protected against corrosion. Painting of the pipelines is necessary to protect the pipelines. Merely painting the pipe surface without surface preparation is of no use.

Surface preparation standards are laid down by institutions like Steel Structures Painting Council (SSPC), National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE), Swedish Standards Institution (SA), International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Pipe surface preparation

Surface preparation can be done in different ways depending on the requirement. The methods are briefly given below and these methods are not limited to pipe surfaces alone and is applicable to all ferrous structures.

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Sound waves are used for depth measurements. The reason is:

The speed of sound in air is 344 metres/second. But interestingly the speed of sound in water is about 1500 metres/second though the speed of sound in water depends on water pressure,temperature,salinity. Electro Magnetic (EM) waves are used in Radars due to their high speed (equal to speed of light) in air. But, EM waves are not suitable for use in water as attenuation in water is very high.

Echo sounders (depth meters) are installed in ships as a navigational aid for depth measurement of the sea. Same sound waves are used in Sonar.

Portable sounders or depth meters are necessary for those who are interested in boating, fishing, scuba diving, coastal survey, and scientific work.

Here is an easy to use SM-5 Depthmate Portable Sounder from Speedtech Instruments.

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Paper log books used by ships are gradually getting replaced with E log books or Electronic log books.

Paper log books had their own drawbacks, such as

• improper filling (like filling up of a daily log on a weekly basis)
• lack of clarity
• over writing
• poor handwriting where no one can understand what is written

In addition safe upkeep of log books is always a problem, such as

• log books getting misplaced in ship
• getting torn and dirty
• getting destroyed due to fire and flooding
• in between pages missing

As per the regulations, records must be maintained and safely kept for reference at any time. To overcome the drawbacks listed above E log books are replacing paper log books. Now, K-Log Electronic Log Books from Kongsberg are available. The K-Log has to be installed in Kongsberg supplied Marine Information Station Computer in the ship.

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Here are some commonly seen electrical equipment in the ships. All these equipments are complying to some IP Rating. Closely look at the circled text.

Here is a Pressure Switch, having Enclosure Protection: IP 66

What is IP Rating ?

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Ships use liquids and gases for different applications. Ships cargo also may be liquids. Liquids may be water,fuel etc., Gases may be compressed air, refrigerants, natural gas etc., These liquids and gases are stored in tanks. The liquids or gases are supplied to different equipments at rated pressure through pumps. From the equipment the liquids and gases may return to tanks if it is a closed circuit or may be drained from the equipment if it is a open system. As the tanks, pumps and equipments are located in different places in the ship, lengthy pipelines are used to interconnect them. When the pipelines pass through the bulkheads and decks in different parts of the ship they are laid as a bunch.

As the pipelines are not transparent the contents of the pipelines are not visible. Even the flow direction can not be found out. For maintenance and fault finding, the contents of the pipelines and the flow direction of the contents must be known. Here comes the necessity to mark the pipelines with a universal color code to identify the contents and flow direction in pipelines.

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Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems are all teaming up to provide lethal ships of tomorrow. Ships will have Minimum Crew and Maximum Weapons. Ships will be capable of launching unmanned submarines,unmanned aerial vehicles in addition to onboard high tech weapons.

There is no end to spend tax payers money by the developed countries. Other countries also won’t mind to follow them.

Click here to read more.

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As frequency of earthquakes is increasing in the islands and ocean regions, Tsunami early warning systems are gaining importance. More and more developments are taking place in the field of Tsunami prediction. The last Tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean Region on December 26, 2004 is not so easy to forget. It has become a necessity to develop Tsunami prone coastal area to be Tsunami ready.

Tsunami predictions are done by

• observing ocean floors
• underwater observation stations

Now it is possible to detect Tsunami by the existing Global Positioning System (GPS) networks. When earthquake occurs in the ocean floor, a small displacement of the ocean surface displaces the atmosphere within about 15 minutes of occurrence and makes it all the way to the ionosphere, causing measurable changes in ionospheric electron density. This is called tsunami signature in the ionosphere and can be identified by the available GPS data.

Here is the Sumatra tsunami signal measured at the Cocos Islands

The Sumatra tsunami signal measured at the Cocos Islands by the tide gauge (red) and by the co-located GPS receiver (blue). The tide gauge measures the sea-level displacement (tide plus superimposed tsunami) and the GPS receiver measures the slant total electron content perturbation (+/-1 TEC unit) in the ionosphere.

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Image source:vik-sandvik, geophys

Development and Economic progress of any country depends on its ability to meet the energy requirements of that country. United States of America by its fleet of naval ships and China by its String of Pearls are all trying their best to have control over oil supply routes through sea to ensure smooth supply of oil. India has realised that increasing imports and escalating oil prices are going to be a hindrance to the nations development.

India has started looking for alternate energy sources specially extraction of gas hydrates from sea bed as the country is having a vast 7500 km plus coast line. Gas hydrates are water molecules in the form of solid with abundant methane molecules. Amazingly, 1 cubic metre of methane hydrate can hold up to 164 cubic metres of methane gas and 0.8 cubic metre of water at normal standard temperature and pressure conditions.

Requirements to extract gas hydrates

• identification of ocean areas regarding the availability of gas hydrates
• ship capable of extracting gas hydrates
• manned or unmanned submersibles to explore sea bed
• scientific community to ensure extraction of gas hydrates

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Here is Floatmaster 10×30 floating binocular (Model AB11092) in bright marine yellow color. If it falls overboard accidentally or even thrown overboard intentionally, no need to panic. Being a floating bright marine yellow color binocular, it can be easily picked up.

Floatmaster Features
• Complete waterproof protection
• Floats on water
• Fully coated optics for bright clear images
• Sturdy construction roof prism binoculars
• Textured and rugged rubber armor
• Non-slip and ergonomic rubber design for secure grip
• Compact and lightweight
• Includes carrying case and neck strap
• Limited Lifetime Warranty

Click here for more details

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WaveFinder is a Swiss designed, active, intelligent, autonomous Man-Over-Board (MOB) safety and search system. This is an essential system for the safety of ships crew which complements the existing products such as lifejackets, flashing lights etc.

On activation, WaveFinder is capable of

• providing automatic alerts to the ships crew that a person has fallen overboard
• providing continuous updated information on the position of MOB
• providing relative distance of the MOB
• guiding the ship to the exact location of the MOB even in the rough seas

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SOund Navigation And Ranging (SONAR), an equipment used to detect underwater objects finds variety of marine applications from Navigation to Naval warfare.

Who invented Sonar ?

• Early research in Lake Geneva by Daniel Colloden in the year 1822 led to the invention of sonar devices by other inventors.
• Lewis Nixon invented the very first Sonar type listening device in 1906, as a way of detecting icebergs.
• Stanley Robert Rich, an entrepreneur and inventor devised a scanning sonar for submarines in World War II.
• Sonar was invented in 1915 by Professor Paul Langevin in France.

Now there is a report from University of Alberta which says that Robert Boyle is the one who actually came up with the first working model of sonar by 1917, beating out the other groups. He is being ignored by history.

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